Artwork © Méghaane Deroo (@missmeghane)
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Cherry
On Friday, July 12, 2024, a delegation of young American students visited the Peking University campus as part of PKU’s “China Deep Dive: Global Young Leaders Program”.
The “Deep Dive” included a special privilege to the young Westerners: four-time Women’s World Chess Champion and PKU Professor 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) took the students on a magical mystery tour all around the 64 squares! Photos: Peking University. |
Friday, July 12, 2024
Lacrimosa
Requiem for the West
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 11, 2024
Towards the end of the 19th century, Moritz Steinschneider, one of the founders of the science of Judaism, declared, not without scandal among many right-thinking people, that the only thing that could be done for Judaism was to ensure it a worthy funeral. It is possible that since then his judgment will also apply to the Church and Western culture as a whole. What has in fact happened, however, is that the worthy funeral that Steinschneider spoke of has not been celebrated, neither then for Judaism nor now for the West.
An essential part of the funeral in the tradition of the Catholic Church is the mass of Requiem, which opens in the Introit with the words: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Furthermore, until 1970, the Roman missal prescribed recitation in the dies irae sequence for the mass of requiem. This choice was perfectly consistent with the fact that the very term that defined the mass for the deceased came from an apocalyptic text, the Apocalypse of Ezra, which evoked both la pace and the end of the world: requiem aeternitatis dabit vobis, quoniam in proximo est ille, qui in finem saeculi adveniet, “he shall give you eternal peace, for he is near, at the end of the world to come”. The abolition of dies irae in 1970 goes together with the abandonment of any eschatological instance by the Church, which has in this way completely conformed to the idea of infinite progress that defines modernity. What is dropped without the courage to explain the reasons — the day of wrath, the last day — can be picked up as a weapon to be used against the cowardice and contradictions of power at the moment of its end. This is what we intend to do here, trying to celebrate without parodic intent, but outside the Church, which belongs to the number of the deceased, a sort of abbreviated funeral for the West.
Dies irae, dies illa
solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sybilla.
Day of Wrath,—that Day of Days,—
When earth shall vanish in a blaze,
as David, with the Sibyl, says!
What day is it? Certainly the present, the time we are living in now. Every day is the day of wrath, the last day. Today the century, the world is burning, and with it also our house. We must be witnesses of this, like David and the Sibyl. Whoever remains silent and does not bear witness, will not have peace either now or tomorrow, because peace is just what the West cannot and does not want to see or think about.
Quantus tremor est futurus
quando iudex est venturus
cuncta stricte discussurus.
What a trembling will come o’er us,
When the Judge shall be before us,
For every hidden sin to score us!
Terror is not future, it is here and now. And that judge is us, called to pronounce judgment, the krisis on our time. We give back the word “crisis”, which one does nothing but talk about to justify the state of exception, its original meaning of judgmemt. In the vocabulary of Hippocratic medicine, krisis designated the moment in which the doctor must judge whether the patient will die or survive. In the same way we discern what in the West is dying and what is still alive. And the judgment will be severe, nothing will be overlooked.
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulchra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.
The trumpet with its wondrous sound,
Piercing each sepulchral mound,
Shall summon all, the throne around.
Nature and death will stand aghast,
When those who to the grave have past,
Come answering to the judge blast!
We cannot resurrect the dead, but we can at least prepare with all care the marvelous instrument of our thought and our judgment and, then making it resonate without fear, free nature and death from the hands of the power that governs us with them. Feeling the amazement of nature and death in us, foreseeing here and now another possible life and another death, is the only resurrection that interests us.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit,
nil inultum remanebit.
The Written Book shall be unrolled,
Wherein the deeds of all are told,
And shall the doom of all unfold.
For when the Judge shall be enthroned,
No secret shall be left unowned,
No crime or trespass unatoned.
The written book is history, which is always history of lies and injustice. There is no history of truth and justice, but an instantaneous appearance in the crucial krisis of any lie and injustice. At that point the lie will no longer be able to cover reality. Justice and truth actually manifest themselves, showing falsehood and injustice. And nothing will escape the force of their revenge, provided that this word is given back the etymological meaning it has in the Roman trial, in which the vindex is the one who vim dicit, who shows the judge the violence that was done to the one whom only in this sense he “avenges”.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vix iustus sit securus.
When for a guilty wretch like me,
What plea, what pleader, will there be,
When scarcely shall the just go free!
The just who lends his voice to the judgment is somehow involved in the judgment and cannot call others to his defence. No one can testify for the witness, he is alone with his own testimony — in this sense he is not sure, he is inside the crisis of his time — and nevertheless he pronounces his own testimony.
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis,
voca me cum benedictis...
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
iudicandus homo reus
When the accurst, from thy face driven,
With bitter pangs of Hell are riven,
Oh! call me with the blest to Heaven.
Oh! The day of mournful gloom!
When man, from Nature’s ashy tomb,
Shall rise to meet his Maker’s doom.
Although the hymn on the day of wrath is part of a mass that asks for peace and mercy for the dead, the distinction between the cursed and the blessed, between the executioners and the victims is maintained. On the last day, the excutioners, as they are now doing without perhaps realising it, actually refute themselves, they drop the masks that covered their injustice and lies and throw themselves into the flames that they themselves lit up. The last day, the day of wrath, every day is a day of tears for them, and it is perhaps just because they are aware of it that they pretend to be so cheerful. Only the consensus and fear of many keeps that day in suspense. For this, even if we know we are powerless in the face of power, our judgment must be all the more implacable, which we cannot separate from the requiem we are celebrating. Lord, do not give them peace, for they do not know what it is.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 11, 2024
Towards the end of the 19th century, Moritz Steinschneider, one of the founders of the science of Judaism, declared, not without scandal among many right-thinking people, that the only thing that could be done for Judaism was to ensure it a worthy funeral. It is possible that since then his judgment will also apply to the Church and Western culture as a whole. What has in fact happened, however, is that the worthy funeral that Steinschneider spoke of has not been celebrated, neither then for Judaism nor now for the West.
An essential part of the funeral in the tradition of the Catholic Church is the mass of Requiem, which opens in the Introit with the words: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Furthermore, until 1970, the Roman missal prescribed recitation in the dies irae sequence for the mass of requiem. This choice was perfectly consistent with the fact that the very term that defined the mass for the deceased came from an apocalyptic text, the Apocalypse of Ezra, which evoked both la pace and the end of the world: requiem aeternitatis dabit vobis, quoniam in proximo est ille, qui in finem saeculi adveniet, “he shall give you eternal peace, for he is near, at the end of the world to come”. The abolition of dies irae in 1970 goes together with the abandonment of any eschatological instance by the Church, which has in this way completely conformed to the idea of infinite progress that defines modernity. What is dropped without the courage to explain the reasons — the day of wrath, the last day — can be picked up as a weapon to be used against the cowardice and contradictions of power at the moment of its end. This is what we intend to do here, trying to celebrate without parodic intent, but outside the Church, which belongs to the number of the deceased, a sort of abbreviated funeral for the West.
Dies irae, dies illa
solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sybilla.
Day of Wrath,—that Day of Days,—
When earth shall vanish in a blaze,
as David, with the Sibyl, says!
What day is it? Certainly the present, the time we are living in now. Every day is the day of wrath, the last day. Today the century, the world is burning, and with it also our house. We must be witnesses of this, like David and the Sibyl. Whoever remains silent and does not bear witness, will not have peace either now or tomorrow, because peace is just what the West cannot and does not want to see or think about.
Quantus tremor est futurus
quando iudex est venturus
cuncta stricte discussurus.
What a trembling will come o’er us,
When the Judge shall be before us,
For every hidden sin to score us!
Terror is not future, it is here and now. And that judge is us, called to pronounce judgment, the krisis on our time. We give back the word “crisis”, which one does nothing but talk about to justify the state of exception, its original meaning of judgmemt. In the vocabulary of Hippocratic medicine, krisis designated the moment in which the doctor must judge whether the patient will die or survive. In the same way we discern what in the West is dying and what is still alive. And the judgment will be severe, nothing will be overlooked.
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulchra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.
The trumpet with its wondrous sound,
Piercing each sepulchral mound,
Shall summon all, the throne around.
Nature and death will stand aghast,
When those who to the grave have past,
Come answering to the judge blast!
We cannot resurrect the dead, but we can at least prepare with all care the marvelous instrument of our thought and our judgment and, then making it resonate without fear, free nature and death from the hands of the power that governs us with them. Feeling the amazement of nature and death in us, foreseeing here and now another possible life and another death, is the only resurrection that interests us.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit,
nil inultum remanebit.
The Written Book shall be unrolled,
Wherein the deeds of all are told,
And shall the doom of all unfold.
For when the Judge shall be enthroned,
No secret shall be left unowned,
No crime or trespass unatoned.
The written book is history, which is always history of lies and injustice. There is no history of truth and justice, but an instantaneous appearance in the crucial krisis of any lie and injustice. At that point the lie will no longer be able to cover reality. Justice and truth actually manifest themselves, showing falsehood and injustice. And nothing will escape the force of their revenge, provided that this word is given back the etymological meaning it has in the Roman trial, in which the vindex is the one who vim dicit, who shows the judge the violence that was done to the one whom only in this sense he “avenges”.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vix iustus sit securus.
When for a guilty wretch like me,
What plea, what pleader, will there be,
When scarcely shall the just go free!
The just who lends his voice to the judgment is somehow involved in the judgment and cannot call others to his defence. No one can testify for the witness, he is alone with his own testimony — in this sense he is not sure, he is inside the crisis of his time — and nevertheless he pronounces his own testimony.
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis,
voca me cum benedictis...
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
iudicandus homo reus
When the accurst, from thy face driven,
With bitter pangs of Hell are riven,
Oh! call me with the blest to Heaven.
Oh! The day of mournful gloom!
When man, from Nature’s ashy tomb,
Shall rise to meet his Maker’s doom.
Although the hymn on the day of wrath is part of a mass that asks for peace and mercy for the dead, the distinction between the cursed and the blessed, between the executioners and the victims is maintained. On the last day, the excutioners, as they are now doing without perhaps realising it, actually refute themselves, they drop the masks that covered their injustice and lies and throw themselves into the flames that they themselves lit up. The last day, the day of wrath, every day is a day of tears for them, and it is perhaps just because they are aware of it that they pretend to be so cheerful. Only the consensus and fear of many keeps that day in suspense. For this, even if we know we are powerless in the face of power, our judgment must be all the more implacable, which we cannot separate from the requiem we are celebrating. Lord, do not give them peace, for they do not know what it is.
(Dies irae’s English translation by Robert C. Winthrop)
(English translation by I, Robot)
(English translation by I, Robot)
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel, Salieri pours poison into a Mozart’s glass, 1884. Courtesy of WikiArt. |
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Eye of the Owl
A fake owl is positioned to keep pigeons away from the grounds on day nine of the Wimbledon championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England.
Photo: Aaron Chown/PA. |
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
She Too
“Magnus Carlsen’s non-participation in matches for the world crown is a loss for chess, to be sure”, four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) was quoted by TASS as saying. “But I guess he is not worried about it. I can understand him very well. I myself was in a similar situation. If he does not enjoy such matches, he must do what is best for him”.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) poses on the red carpet at the awards ceremony of the 4th “Tournament of Stars” on Tuesday evening, July 2, 2024, in Moscow, Russia. Photos: Irina Anisina/photobyirsn.com. |
Monday, July 8, 2024
Beauty and the Beast
The bull of Pasiphaë and the technique
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 8, 2024
In the myth of Pasiphaë, the woman who gets Daedalus to build her an artificial cow so that it can mate with a bull, it is legitimate to see a paradigm of technology. Technique appears in this perspective as the apparatus through which man tries to reach — or reach again — animality. But this is just the risk that humanity is running today through technological hypertrophy. Artificial intelligence, to which technique seems to want to entrust its extreme outcome, seeks to produce an intelligence that, like animal instinct, works on its own, so to say, without the intervention of a thinking subject. It is the Daedalic cow through which human intelligence believes it can happily mate with the instinct of the bull, becoming or rebecoming animal. And it is not surprising that from this union a monstruous being is born, with a human body and a bull’s head, the Minotaur, who gets locked up in a labyrinth and fed on human flesh.
In technique — this is the thesis we intend to suggest — what is actually at issue is the relation between human and animal. Anthropogenesis, the becoming human of primate homo, is not, indeed, an event accomplished once and for all at a certain moment in chronology: it is a process still ongoing, in which man does not cease to become human and, at the same time, to remain animal. And if human nature is so difficult to define, this is just because it takes the form of an articulation between two heterogeneous and yet closely intertwined elements. Their assiduous implication is what we call history, in which all Western knowledge was involved since the beginning, from philosophy to grammar, from logic to science and, today, to cybernetics and information technology.
Human nature — it is well not to forget it — is not a given that may ever be acquired or fixed normatively according to one’s own will: it rather gives itself in a historical praxis, which — insamuch as it must distinguish and articulate together, inside and outside man, the living and the speaking, the human and the animal — can only be incessantly carried out and each time deferred and updated. This means that an essentially political problem is at stake in it, upon which the decision of what is human and what is not depends. The place of man is in this gap and tension between human and animal, language and life, nature and history. And if, like Pasiphaë, he forgets his own vital dwelling and tries to flatten one on the other the extremes between which he must remain tense, he will only be able to generate monsters and, with them, imprison himself in a labyrinth with no way out.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 8, 2024
In the myth of Pasiphaë, the woman who gets Daedalus to build her an artificial cow so that it can mate with a bull, it is legitimate to see a paradigm of technology. Technique appears in this perspective as the apparatus through which man tries to reach — or reach again — animality. But this is just the risk that humanity is running today through technological hypertrophy. Artificial intelligence, to which technique seems to want to entrust its extreme outcome, seeks to produce an intelligence that, like animal instinct, works on its own, so to say, without the intervention of a thinking subject. It is the Daedalic cow through which human intelligence believes it can happily mate with the instinct of the bull, becoming or rebecoming animal. And it is not surprising that from this union a monstruous being is born, with a human body and a bull’s head, the Minotaur, who gets locked up in a labyrinth and fed on human flesh.
In technique — this is the thesis we intend to suggest — what is actually at issue is the relation between human and animal. Anthropogenesis, the becoming human of primate homo, is not, indeed, an event accomplished once and for all at a certain moment in chronology: it is a process still ongoing, in which man does not cease to become human and, at the same time, to remain animal. And if human nature is so difficult to define, this is just because it takes the form of an articulation between two heterogeneous and yet closely intertwined elements. Their assiduous implication is what we call history, in which all Western knowledge was involved since the beginning, from philosophy to grammar, from logic to science and, today, to cybernetics and information technology.
Human nature — it is well not to forget it — is not a given that may ever be acquired or fixed normatively according to one’s own will: it rather gives itself in a historical praxis, which — insamuch as it must distinguish and articulate together, inside and outside man, the living and the speaking, the human and the animal — can only be incessantly carried out and each time deferred and updated. This means that an essentially political problem is at stake in it, upon which the decision of what is human and what is not depends. The place of man is in this gap and tension between human and animal, language and life, nature and history. And if, like Pasiphaë, he forgets his own vital dwelling and tries to flatten one on the other the extremes between which he must remain tense, he will only be able to generate monsters and, with them, imprison himself in a labyrinth with no way out.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Line by Line
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – 沈阳 (Shěn Yáng)
18th Chinese Chess League Division A Regular "武陵山大裂谷杯" (“Wǔlíng Mountain Great Rift Valley Cup”); time control: 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting on move 1; 重庆 (Chóngqìng), July 8, 2024
Richter–Veresov Attack D01
1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bf4. Lately, this has been one of 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)’s favourites.
3. ... c6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Bd3 Bg6 6. h4 e6 7. h5 Bxd3 8. cxd3 h6 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. a3 Be7 11. Ne5 Qb6 12. Na4 Qb5 13. Rh3 Nxe5 14. Bxe5 Rg8. Probably 14. ... 0-0 15. Rg3 Kh8 is also playable, although, of course, somewhat more risky.
3. ... c6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Bd3 Bg6 6. h4 e6 7. h5 Bxd3 8. cxd3 h6 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. a3 Be7 11. Ne5 Qb6 12. Na4 Qb5 13. Rh3 Nxe5 14. Bxe5 Rg8. Probably 14. ... 0-0 15. Rg3 Kh8 is also playable, although, of course, somewhat more risky.
15. Rg3. A pseudo-Pawn sacrifice which, if refused, gives White time to consolidate with Ra1-b1 and Na4-c3, and, if accepted, offers her an initiative which is fit for at least a draw.
15. ... Nxh5 16. Qxh5 Qxa4 17. Rf3 Qc2 (17. ... g6!? 18. Qxh6 Qb3⇄)
18. Rd1 (18. Qxf7+ Kd7 19. Bxg7 Qxb2⇄)
18. ... Qxb2
15. ... Nxh5 16. Qxh5 Qxa4 17. Rf3 Qc2 (17. ... g6!? 18. Qxh6 Qb3⇄)
18. Rd1 (18. Qxf7+ Kd7 19. Bxg7 Qxb2⇄)
18. ... Qxb2
19. Rxf7!? An interesting winning attempt which forces Black to find a couple of only moves:
19. ... g6 20. Rxe7+ Kxe7 21. Qxh6
19. ... g6 20. Rxe7+ Kxe7 21. Qxh6
21. ... Raf8! 22. Qh7+ Rf7! 23. Bd6+. Of course the Rook is taboo because of mate in one. The text leads to a draw almost by force:
23. ... Kxd6 24. Qxf7 Rh8 25. Rd2 Qc1+ 26. Ke2 Rh1 27. Qf4+ Ke7 28. Qc7+ Kf6 29. Qd8+ Kf7 30. Qc7+ Kf6 31. Qf4+ Kg7 32. Qc7+ ½–½.
23. ... Kxd6 24. Qxf7 Rh8 25. Rd2 Qc1+ 26. Ke2 Rh1 27. Qf4+ Ke7 28. Qc7+ Kf6 29. Qd8+ Kf7 30. Qc7+ Kf6 31. Qf4+ Kg7 32. Qc7+ ½–½.
Both 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and 沈阳 (Shěn Yáng) played quite correctly and honourably drew. Photos: 尚运动 (Shàng Sports). |
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Black Swan
翟墨 (Zhái Mò) – 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)
18th Chinese Chess League Division A Regular "武陵山大裂谷杯" (“Wǔlíng Mountain Great Rift Valley Cup”); time control: 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting on move 1; 重庆 (Chóngqìng), July 7, 2024
Queen’s Gambit Declined D63
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. Nf3 0-0 8. Rc1 a6 9. c5 c6 10. Be2 b6 11. b4 a5 12. a3 axb4 13. axb4 bxc5 14. bxc5 e5! Very natural, though 14. ... Ba6 15. 0-0 Bxe2 16. Qxe2 Ne4 also gives Black a comfortable equality, Lintchevski – Mastrovasilis, 24th Open International Tournament, Kavala 2015.
15. dxe5 Ne4 16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. Nxe4 dxe4 18. Nd4 Nxe5 19. 0-0. Not 19. Qc2 because of 19. ... Nd3+! 20. Bxd3 exd3 21. Qxd3? Ba6↑ keeping the White King in the centre.
19. ... Be6 20. Nxe6 Qxe6 21. Qd4 Qf5 22. Ra1 Rad8 23. Qb4 Rfe8 24. Rfd1 Rb8 25. Qc3 Re6 26. Rd6 Qf6 27. Qd4 Rxd6 28. cxd6
15. dxe5 Ne4 16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. Nxe4 dxe4 18. Nd4 Nxe5 19. 0-0. Not 19. Qc2 because of 19. ... Nd3+! 20. Bxd3 exd3 21. Qxd3? Ba6↑ keeping the White King in the centre.
19. ... Be6 20. Nxe6 Qxe6 21. Qd4 Qf5 22. Ra1 Rad8 23. Qb4 Rfe8 24. Rfd1 Rb8 25. Qc3 Re6 26. Rd6 Qf6 27. Qd4 Rxd6 28. cxd6
28. ... c5! 29. Qa4 c4 30. Rc1? This imperceptible inaccuracy is sufficient to give Black the initiative. Safer was 30. Rd1 Nd3 31. Bxd3 cxd3 32. Qxe4 Qxd6 with more or less equality.
30. ... Qxd6 31. Bxc4 Qc7 32. h3 Nd3! 33. Ra1 Nb2 34. Bxf7+ Qxf7 35. Qxe4 Rf8 36. f3 Nc4
30. ... Qxd6 31. Bxc4 Qc7 32. h3 Nd3! 33. Ra1 Nb2 34. Bxf7+ Qxf7 35. Qxe4 Rf8 36. f3 Nc4
37. Qd4? This concedes 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) a vehement attack. After 37. Ra8 Nd6 38. Rxf8+ Kxf8 39. Qd4 Ne8∓ would be anything but easy for Black to show a win.
37. ... Qe6 38. e4 Kh7 39. Kh2 Ne5! Threatening ... Ne5xf3+.
40. Qc3 Qd6 41. Kh1
37. ... Qe6 38. e4 Kh7 39. Kh2 Ne5! Threatening ... Ne5xf3+.
40. Qc3 Qd6 41. Kh1
41. ... Nxf3! 42. gxf3 Qg3 43. Qc2 Qxh3+ 44. Qh2 Qxf3+ 45. Qg2 Qh5+ 46. Qh2 Qg4 0–1.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) played highly inspired chess and deservedly won. Photo: Sina Sports. |
White Swan
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – 黄茜 (Huáng Qiàn)
18th Chinese Chess League Division A Regular "武陵山大裂谷杯" (“Wǔlíng Mountain Great Rift Valley Cup”); time control: 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting on move 1; 重庆 (Chóngqìng), July 6, 2024
Sicilian Defence B33
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Nd5 Nxd5 8. exd5 Nb8 9. a4 Be7 10. Bd2 a6 11. Na3 a5? This blatant loss of time is too much for Black. Playable is 11. ... 0-0 12. a5 Bf5 13. Nc4 Nd7 (so as to reply to 14. Bb4 with 14. ... Rc8!⇄ Iskandarov – Gukesh, 10th Chess World Cup, Baku 2023, match game 2).
12. Bb5+ Nd7 13. 0-0 0-0 14. Nc4 b6 15. Ra3 Nc5 16. Be3 Qc7 17. Re1 f5 18. Bxc5 bxc5
12. Bb5+ Nd7 13. 0-0 0-0 14. Nc4 b6 15. Ra3 Nc5 16. Be3 Qc7 17. Re1 f5 18. Bxc5 bxc5
19. Rxe5! The beginning of a skirmish, which soon leads White to win material.
19. ... dxe5 20. d6 Bxd6 21. Qd5+ Qf7 22. Qxa8 Be6 23. Qc6 Bb8 24. Nxa5 Kh8 25. Qxc5 e4 26. Nc6 Rc8 27. Qd4 Bc7 28. a5 Qh5 29. h3 Qg5 30. a6 f4 31. Qxe4 Bd5
19. ... dxe5 20. d6 Bxd6 21. Qd5+ Qf7 22. Qxa8 Be6 23. Qc6 Bb8 24. Nxa5 Kh8 25. Qxc5 e4 26. Nc6 Rc8 27. Qd4 Bc7 28. a5 Qh5 29. h3 Qg5 30. a6 f4 31. Qxe4 Bd5
32. h4! White brilliantly rejects the desperate attacking attempts of her opponent.
32. ... Qh5 33. Qd4 Ra8 34. c4 Bxg2 35. Kxg2 Qxh4 36. Qd7 Qg5+ 37. Kf1 f3 38. Rxf3 Qc1+ 39. Kg2 Qg5+ 40. Kf1 Qc1+ 41. Kg2 Qg5+ 42. Rg3! Bxg3 43. fxg3 Rf8 44. Qd3 h5 45. Nd4 h4 46. Ne2 Qf6 47. Nf4 hxg3 48. Qxg3 Qxb2+ 49. Qf2 Qf6
32. ... Qh5 33. Qd4 Ra8 34. c4 Bxg2 35. Kxg2 Qxh4 36. Qd7 Qg5+ 37. Kf1 f3 38. Rxf3 Qc1+ 39. Kg2 Qg5+ 40. Kf1 Qc1+ 41. Kg2 Qg5+ 42. Rg3! Bxg3 43. fxg3 Rf8 44. Qd3 h5 45. Nd4 h4 46. Ne2 Qf6 47. Nf4 hxg3 48. Qxg3 Qxb2+ 49. Qf2 Qf6
50. Qh4+! 1–0.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) made her grand début as the spearhead of the 山东外国语职业技术大学队 (Shāndōng Vocational and Technical University of International Studies Team) at this year’s Chinese League season. Photo: Sina Sports. |
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Back to the Future
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders congratulated Jeremy Corbyn, who joined the Labour Party in 1965 and was expelled from it in 2024, for retaining his seat in the UK Parliament after running as an Independent in this week’s election. “Congrats to Jeremy Corbyn for winning his seat as an Independent in the UK elections with a strong grassroots campaign. Corbyn made the mistake of believing that the Labour Party should represent labor — and was expelled. His constituents disagreed”, Sanders wrote. “Now he’s back”.
Friday, July 5, 2024
One Red Sun
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) shone as a flame of golden red at the awarding ceremony of the 4th “Tournament of Stars” on Tuesday evening, July 2, 2024, in Moscow, Russia. Photos: Sergey Sergeevich Moiseev. |
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